- The illumos Cafe is a new project inspired by the success of the BSD Cafe, aiming to promote OS diversity by providing services running on illumos-based operating systems.
- It offers a positive, inclusive community hub built with open-source tools, free from algorithmic control and commercial influence.
- illumos is an open-source descendant of OpenSolaris, known for enterprise-grade stability, ZFS, DTrace, and zones, making it a kindred spirit to BSDs.
- The technical setup uses a SmartOS VM on FreeBSD with bhyve, hosting multiple zones for services like Mastodon, snac, nginx, PostgreSQL, and Redis.
- Media files are stored externally on a FreeBSD server with SeaweedFS, and the entire setup is documented for transparency.
- Currently available services include Mastodon and snac instances on the Fediverse, both adhering to the same positive rules as the BSD Cafe.
- Registrations for the Mastodon instance are open, and the project's logo is handmade, not AI-generated.
- The creator aims to document the process and hopes to see Fediverse instances distributed across major open-source operating systems to avoid single points of failure.